The Borg with the Ring
by WriterfromWarDrobe
Summary: For Inez, college finals can wait; it's time to save Cyberspace. But when the adventure ends, Inez realizes it's either college or Cyberspace. Inez/Slider with Matt/Shari. One-shot.


**The Borg with the Ring**

 **A Cyberchase Fanfiction**

 **I do not own Cyberchase, all rights belong to their respectful owners. My apologies for any inconsistencies due to having not watched the show in years.**

Inez griped the arms of her seat, even though she was belted in. What would happen if they crashed? Of course being thrown from her seat was the least of her worries. If they could not outrun the Hacker, it would mean being imprisoned by that fiend, and when he found out that she and Slider did not have the real encrypted chip…she did not want to even think about what he would do to them or their teammates who were on their way to Motherboard the real chip.

She glanced over at Slider as he jerked the wheel, moving the cyber-pod on their dangerous course through Cyberspace. Having been paired up together multiple times over the years, Inez had grown to trust Slider's judgement when it came to maneuvering their spacecraft. Even now, with the Grim Wreaker speeding along in their wake, Slider seemed confident, as cool as a cucumber as usual. For Inez, her old catchphrase came back when she looked to see that Hacker's spaceship was gaining quickly, with a claw extending out of the green dome at the ship's front, reaching for them.

"This is not good, not good at all!"

Slider gazed briefly in the rearview to take note of Inez's distress. "It's gonna be okay, Nezzie," he said calmly, as if this was just something simple like the time she messed up on the crumpet recipe when she had been baking a huge batch of them for Matt and Shari's wedding.

Inez's hands clamped tighter around the ends of the chair arms, her knuckles turning white. Slider's almost laid-back manner had comforted her more than once, and she admired him for that. Still, she considered the probability that her worst enemy of the past 13 years could win the war – it would be a Black Swan many standard deviations away from the bell-curve, but possible nonetheless.

 _ **Clank!**_

Inez nearly screamed when their cyberspace-vehicle lurched backward amidst the deafening crumple of metal. Hacker's claw had made contact.

Slider began pressing extra-power-boost buttons, determination in his eyes. He expressed no fear at being caught, and Inez could not feel the worry in herself any more, either. Something about being within their adversary's clutches did not make them feel defeated; rather, it gave them the strength to not go down without a fight.

Inez grabbed the squak-pad to get in touch with Jackie. The dark-skinned girl had stayed at Control Central with Dr. Marbles to work on a code that might be able to reboot Motherboard's system until the real encrypted-chip could be located. When Jackie came on the screen, Inez lost no time in asking if Matt and Shari had gotten back to Motherboard yet.

"Yes," Jackie confirmed. "They just arrived."

"Is that Nezzie?" Inez heard Matt say in the background. "Tell her: she and Slide don't have to run interference anymore."

"Hacker's already got hold of us!" Inez shouted. "We need a portal now! And don't call me Nezzie!"

Just then, the spacecraft jerked wildly to one side, throwing Slider from his seat because, despite Jackie's continuous warnings, he never wore his safety belt. Even now, his unexpected trip across the craft's compartment did not go unnoticed by Jackie on the other side of the squak-pad.

"Slider, what have I told you about buckling up?!"

"No time for that, Jacks!" cried Matt. "Dige, get them out of there."

Although Inez could not see her cy-bird friend, his unmistakable voice reached her loud and clear. "One portal coming up!"

Within a moment, a pinkish-purple disk had drawn itself in the air, not far away from the cyber-pod. But escaping the clutch of the Grim Wreaker and getting to safety was not so easily done. Inez held down on the controls, listening to the engine rev and strain. The claw from Hacker's spaceship shook their little craft vehemently, making crashing and crunching noises.

Slider struggled back to his seat, unable to keep his balance in the spinning aircraft. Grabbing hold of the arm of Inez's chair, he looked over her shoulder. "Have you got the throttle open?"

"All the way," Inez confirmed. She gazed out at the portal. It was beginning to fade. "Can we release the back end of the pod?" she asked, desperately.

"We'll lose the engine if we do that." Slider braced himself as the ship was twisted to one side. "But if Hacker keeps this up, he'll have it broken off for us."

The pod jerked back the other way. Inez had started to notice that the mechanical claw was not tossing them about haphazardly. It was following a pattern. "I have an idea. We'll break apart from Hacker just before he throws us to the left again."

"What'll that do?" Slider demanded, being thrown into the back of her chair.

Inez did not bother answering, focusing her attention on their position. Just as the claw wound back to the right, Inez pressed the button to break the spacecraft. There was a loud grating noise as the vessel broke at the same exact moment that the claw flung them to the left. It was all the momentum the little pod required, launching them straight into the portal before it vanished.

As they safely flew through the pink tunnel to Control Central, Slider was able to retake his seat. "Nezzie, that was genius!" he cried, staring excitedly over at her. "Have I ever told you how amazing you are?"

Inez laughed, starting to relax after everything they had been through that day. She could hardly believe that this morning had started out so calmly with her studying for her computer science final at her desk in her bedroom. Next thing she had known, Motherboard was on her laptop screen, urging her to join Matt, Shari and Slider in Poddleville; Jackie would be on her way shortly. From there on, a desperate search for the encrypted chip – a new encrypted chip built by a Poddle professor that could withstand severe viruses – had ensued.

She smiled over at her friend; the two of them had teamed up together on more adventures than she could count, and every time, Slider ended with the same phrase, and she would always return with, "Yeah, I think you've mentioned that before." She loved hearing it again and again. There were many times during their missions that she feared that it would not end this way.

"You're really amazing yourself," she added. "But you need to wear your seat belt."

Slider chuckled. "Yes, mother."

Next moment, they were back at Control Central with Jackie, Shari, Matt, Doctor Marbles, and Digit rushing toward them.

"Yeek! You look like you've been in a one hundred car pile-up!" screeched Jackie, looking over the damaged space-pod as her friends crawled from the wreck, the door having been smashed, forcing them to escape via a broken side window. "Are you all right? Do you have any broken bones? Speak to me! How many fingers am I holding up?"

Matt rolled his eyes. "And the Mother Hen Award goes to –"

"MATT!" Jackie frowned at the redhead. "Can't you ever be serious?"

"We're fine, Jacks," Inez quickly announced, though she was shaking visibly. Her nerves had not quite returned to a normal state, but everyone was used to that about Inez after experiencing near death with her for years.

"It was like doing the Sharp Curve at the skate park," Slider remarked airily, which only made Jackie don a highly doubtful expression. It was common for her to disbelieve Slider's nonchalant responses; she knew from her own adventures with the cyborg that his idea of smooth-sailing were choppy waters.

For Inez, she admired Slider for his easy-going manner even though she was more apt to agree with Jackie about how dangerous the mission really was. But Inez had always been more likely to keep her head when life took a serious jolt whereas Jackie was the first one to fly off the handle.

"Don't worry about the cyber-pod," Doctor Marbles assured the Cybersquad. "Those can always be replaced."

Digit flew over to Slider and Inez. "But best friends can't be," the cy-bird said, putting a wing on each of the young adult's shoulders. "It's good to have you back safe and sound. Now, come on in! I think we need a celebration drink or something."

Shari rubbed her hands together. "I've already put the kettle on; I'm brewing one of my favorite mixes right now."

"That the one named Victory-juice?" asked Matt, receiving an energetic nod from his wizard-wife. "I helped perfect that one," he added to the others. "We made it just for the Cybersquad, and Jacks, you'll love it – it's got a real kick to it!"

As everyone headed inside, Inez noticed that Slider was not with them. She glanced back to see him studying the destroyed aircraft, his foot kicking at a broken piece of metal on the ground. Thinking that the cyborg-mechanic was only determining what parts could be salvaged, Inez went over to him.

"Hey, you can do that later. Let's go inside and try some of Shari's concoction. I'll bet there'll be crumpets to go with it."

Slider's eyes were still on the wreck. "This could have been it."

Inez frowned. "What?"

"I mean…" Slider turned toward her. "We could have been goners this time."

Inez shifted uneasily, feeling her unsteady nerves acting up. She did not like thinking on what might have happened, and Slider had never been one to bring it up in the past. "Well…everything worked out…"

"I was so scared."

Inez met Slider's gaze. "You didn't seem scared to me," she said quickly, wanting to end this conversation.

Slider released a laugh-like sigh, but there was no humor on his face. "I'm never worried for myself, and maybe that's how I can act like nothing's wrong." He sighed again, like he had something he needed to say but could not get it out. "I was worried about you," he finally said.

"I'm fine," she whispered for lack of anything else to say.

"I'm always scared for you."

"Well, then…we don't need to team up…if I cause you that much trouble," Inez got out with difficulty, though she did not mean it. What would she do if she did not have Slider by her side? He was the anchor for her quaking nerves.

"No, that's not what I want!" quickly exclaimed Slider. "I always want to be your partner, no matter what. But I don't want it all to end after a cup of Victory-juice and you hop on the next portal to your world. We've had our rough times with Hacker, but we've had good times when there's peace. Well, I want more of those good times, Nezzie. Can't you stay?"

Inez gulped uncomfortably. Stay? Like how Matt stayed?

It had been a shock when Matt had announced last summer that he was moving to Cyberspace for good to marry his sweetheart Shari. Of course, Inez and Jackie were the only worldly friends he had by this point. His parents had died in a car crash and the insurance company had reclaimed the farm and his animals. He had had virtually nothing holding him back, and the only people who would miss him knew where to find him.

Following the wedding, Inez and Jackie had visited Cyberspace every other week, and sometimes even more often than that, even if there were no issues with Hacker that required them to solve. Mainly they spent time at Matt and Shari's place, though Doctor Marbles, Digit, Motherboard and Slider were others they often spent time with. Looking back, Inez realized she had not been able to go more than a couple weeks without showing up at Slider's garage, sometimes with Jackie or Matt and Shari, or sometimes just by herself. Those 'good times' when it had just been the two of them were the times she cherished most.

However, she was still an Earthly. Unlike Matt, she had a family. She also had a college graduation coming up, and she had already accepted a high-paying job at a huge computer company. Her life on the other side of the portal was her dream-come-true. Matt had not had these opportunities while Shari had just been offered a teaching position at the Wizarding School – another reason why he stayed.

Nevertheless, Cyberspace was like a second home, and being with Slider…well, that was another dream. She thought fleetingly that she should ask him to come to her world instead, but he had his dad and their mechanic business, and like how she could not just walk away from her family and upcoming job, she knew he could not walk away from his.

"I'm sorry, Slide," she said quietly, almost to tears. She tried to look up to meet his eyes, but she knew if she did, the tears would fall. "I can't stay. Not now, not ever."

"We could be together like Matt and Shari." The skateboarder's voice sounded desperate, something she rarely heard in him. He wrapped an arm about her shoulders. When they would sit together in the back of his shop, she would welcome his arm around her. Right now, all she could do was recoil, as if Hacker himself was trying to get hold of her. Slider blinked as she backed away. "But Nezzie – "

"Don't call me Nezzie!" she shouted, finally looking up at the borg's face. The carefree guy who could shake off near death with the wave of his hand was gone; a perplexed and thoroughly confused Slider stared at her with big, sad eyes. Inez struggled harder with her own tears. "I can't give up everything, Slide, just for you. I can never love you."

Whatever invisible force had been keeping back their tears was broken at that remark. Slider looked down, trying to hide the fact that water was streaming down his cheeks. He had always been the 'tough guy' who did not cry, and Inez hated that her own words could have rendered him to this. Through her own blinding tears, she turned away and hurried into the main room at Control Central. Everyone seemed preoccupied with their mini celebration party and the fact that Motherboard was feeling the best she had in years. No one noticed Inez summoning a portal to take her back to her bedroom, where she would fall into her pillows and cry for the rest of the day.

 **-Three Weeks Later** -

In cap and gown, with a diploma in her hands, Inez felt like she was on top of the world. Four years of hard study had brought her to this one day as a graduate Computer Science Major.

As she sat on one of the outside bleachers, off by herself, taking a few minutes to register that she was – at long last – graduated, before she rejoined her family and friends in the auditorium, she thought about what had led her to choose this career path.

Cyberspace. Where else? She had applied more math and programming skills there than she had in any school classroom, and she had loved every minute of it.

Nevertheless, it was not just the problem-solving that she had loved about Cyberspace; it had been the people there, and she had not been back since the day she snuck away from everyone at Control Central. Jackie had come and gone a few times, returning each time with a plea for Inez to go back and make amends with Slider, or at the very least, visit with Matt, Shari, Digit and their other cyborg friends.

Inez could not.

Tears threatened to fall as she thought about how not too long ago that she could not have waited to spend time with Slider. Now, here it was three weeks and two days since she had lied to Slider. She could love him. In hindsight, she realized she had for a long time. Still, she could not go back and tell the truth; he would want the two of them to stay together, and she knew that would never be possible.

There was streak of pink horizontally in front of and just a bit higher than Inez's head. She looked up at once, thinking that the portal was meant for her, that something horrible must be happening in Cyberspace for Motherboard to be summoning her. Instead, the portal deposited a person in unceremonious fashion – meaning it dropped him head first into a bleacher – in front of the startled Inez. The Hispanic girl stared down on the figure as the portal disappeared.

"Slider?"

The cyborg got up, rubbing his head. He just stared at her a moment before softly saying "Hey."

"Have you come to visit me?" Inez questioned; why else would he be here?

"Nope," he answered, surprising her. "Did you see a suitcase fall?"

Inez shook her head, not understanding.

"Oh, darn that Digit! Where do you suppose that suitcase wound up?"

"What's with the suitcase?"

Slider gave Inez his 'it should be obvious' look. "I'm staying."

"Did Jackie make you come?" Inez crossed her arms. She should be feeling happy to see him, but somehow she could only feel guilty. He had a life in Cyberspace.

"Yeah, Jacks came to me, and said if I didn't go, I'd regret it and then it'd be too late, and lots of grief…lots of grief. I think that was her choice word. She used it a lot."

"But…what about Coop and Radopolis?" Inez sputtered.

"They're not going anywhere. I can still visit. And when I talked to my dad, he just started on about my mom. I guess he thought she was pretty amazing. He wanted me to do the right thing, or there would be grief. Lots of grief – he must have picked that up from Jackie."

Inez put her hands on both sides of her head, as though she were trying to keep it from toppling off the rest of her body. This was more information than she knew how to process right then, and Slider knew this was a lot to take in. He climbed over the bench to be on the same level as her and gently put his arm around her shoulders.

"It's gonna be okay, Nezzie. You don't have to answer right away, just know now that I love you, and I've got a ring for you whenever you're ready for it."

The short woman stared up her friend. "You're really amazing yourself. And…" she paused, fighting back tears, though this time, they were not unhappy ones. "I could love you."

 **The Author does not condone the misuse of safety belts! The Author only chose to have Slider not wear his to present a more reckless imagine, to give Slider a devil-may-care personality, if you will.**

 **Also, the term Black Swan was used in my statistics class to refer to events that existed outside of the standard bell-curve that are unlikely to happen, though could still occur.**

 **Lastly, this story gets its name from the Cyberchase episode in which Slider first appears: 'The Borg of the Rings' – a spoof on LotR with Slider's name playing off the character Strider. Haha, love that!**


End file.
